[moneydance] Budget manager questions

[Don]

Thanks Brett, I think I'll give that a try.  So, I'll name the plan 
"Monthly Budget", start in September, and see how it goes.  What do I do 
when October rolls around, change all the dates and start over?

Don


Brett Russ wrote:
> Don,
> Let me try to answer at least one of your questions below.
> A budget is nothing more than a financial plan.  It allows you to set
> categorized income and expense values.  Then, by adding all of your
> transactions to MD like you always do, you can assess your progress
> against the budget by creating a budget report.  The start/end dates
> define the date at which that budget line item goes into (or comes out
> of) effect.  So if I were you I'd create the budget with a start date
> of Sept 1, 2007 which will begin counting all of this months expenses
> against that budget.  I agree that monthly works for most expenses,
> but some bills are issued at different frequencies, such as quarterly,
> etc.  Therefore, those budget line items can be set to the
> corresponding frequency.
>
> So I think the key that you may be missing is the budget report,
> accessed by clicking on the "graphs and reports" link in the top right
> of the MD home page.  You can define the period of time you evaluate
> your progress against the budget and then see how you did.
>
> Does this help?
> BR
>
> On 9/9/07, Don <dlbrett at zoominternet.net> wrote:
>   
>> Thanks for the reply, I appreciate your insight.  You gave me some great
>> answers, unfortunately, my questions might not have been so good!  On
>> the budget intent question, maybe I should just state the problem I have:
>>
>> I would like to create a personal family budget.  I think I need to
>> determine my income and expense patterns on a periodic basis, probably
>> monthly.  I would like to figure out how much I will owe, who to pay,
>> when to pay them, how much to pay them, and divert as much as I can to
>> expensive loans or savings accounts; all in September, then October,
>> etc.  By the way, is this how a budget is normally done, or ...?
>>
>> The budget manager does a good job of calculating income and expenses
>> (calculate button), but where does it go from there?  Are the start and
>> end dates used for anything other than notes?  Should I spread the dates
>> over the entire year, or ...?  Thanks again for the help,
>>
>> Don
>>
>>
>> Yehudit Winiarz wrote:
>>     
>>> Don,
>>>
>>> To answer your questions:
>>>
>>> 1. a budget can be created either for comparative purposes or to track
>>> different income and expenses. Take for example, your budget for heating
>>> your home in the winter is much different than it is in the summer (unless
>>> you live in sub zero areas).
>>>
>>> 2. I don't find that putting a different past or present date in the
>>> "effective date" changes the bottom right calculations in that it will
>>> calculate how much income and expenses will be used from this month, year,
>>> past 30 or 365 days, by following this particular budget. If you put a
>>> future date, you are not yet using this budget, thereby giving you a $0.00
>>> output for the current month or any previous dates.
>>>
>>> 3. From what I gather, yes. But if you are making a Winter budget and a
>>> summer budget you'll probably want them to start and end at different times.
>>>
>>> 4. It's a good idea to have some budget goals in mind, written down on
>>> paper, before using the budget manager. If you are starting without any
>>> prior records, you'll have to use your own estimates. If you already have a
>>> few months' worth of data entered, you can print a copy of the Cash Flow
>>> Report for those months and use them to estimate your budget. I saved up and
>>> entered all my data over a few months and then used the manager to calculate
>>> estimates, and then tweaked them when necessary.
>>>
>>> 5. That's how I understand it.
>>>
>>> 6. See #3
>>>
>>> 7. See #3
>>>
>>> 8. That is what I have found. However, this is where I have questions -
>>> which I will post separately. BTW,you can use the + and - in the lower left
>>> corner to remove or add budget lines. Also, usually everything is editable -
>>> just double click the field.
>>>
>>> Take care,
>>> Yehudit
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 9/3/07, Don <dlbrett at zoominternet.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I'm trying to figure out how to best use the budget manager.  I read the
>>>> online instructions, but it's still not obvious to me, so I have some
>>>> questions: (Note - Starting path is: Tools -> Budget Manager -> New)
>>>>
>>>> 1. What is the intent of a given budget plan?  The manager supports up
>>>> to ten plans, so it must not be a monthly thing.  Is it a plan for the
>>>> entire account or ......?
>>>>
>>>> 2. Pressing the "Calculate" button offers some options.  If I enter a
>>>> date from a future month, the totals at the bottom right are zero.  A
>>>> future date from this month gives low numbers, a past date from any past
>>>> month gives a high number.  What is the purpose of the "Effective On"
>>>> entry?
>>>>
>>>> 3. When calculating, the "Effective On" date ends up in the "Start Date"
>>>> column.  Does "Effective On" equal "Start Date"?
>>>>
>>>> 4. What should be the "Effective On" date for the budget plan?  Should
>>>> this be a future date, or match the first date of the selected "Date"
>>>> field, or today, or the first date of some month, or ....?
>>>>
>>>> 5. Pressing the "Calculate" button results in the amount field being
>>>> populated.  It looks like the amount values are based upon past
>>>> payments, averaged over the selected "Date" period, for a period
>>>> (monthly, yearly, etc).  Is this correct?
>>>>
>>>> 6. What is the intended purpose of the "End Date" column.  Is it a
>>>> monthly payment, or approximate payment time, or ....?
>>>>
>>>> 7. Is the "End Date" field meant for one-time or recurring payments?.
>>>> If recurring, what time span should it cover?
>>>>
>>>> 8. The calculate function results in values populated in the "Amount"
>>>> column.  It seems to search every account for every transactions, in
>>>> every category, for the specified time period.  Is this correct?
>>>>
>>>> Well, that's probably enough for today.  Thanks for the help!
>>>>
>>>> Don
>>>>
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>>>>         
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